change of fate

Alone in a Strange Place

Katara's sleep if fitful in a way it hasn't been since she was first taken. She dreams of a man made of burning embers chasing her across the world. His face is that of a fire nation's warrior's mask with buring fire in the hollow of his eyes. The crown he wears looks like it is scuplted from twisted charred bodies instead of shaped metal. The land is left sorched and blackened in his wake.

He laughs as he chases her, the earth shakes at the wretched sound. Katara's feet feel weighed down, she's never quick enough to get away, he's always nipping at her heel. Katara runs. She runs and she runs, she runs so hard that she forgets to cry at the horror of it all.

Then suddenly the ash man is gone and Katara is home. Her mother beside her, they're sitting, watching her father show Sokka how to properly throw a spear. She remembers this, remember's how Sokka had somehow managed to hit the target dead center on his first try. How later Sokka had tried to teach her to do the same. It's a peaceful memory.

She turns to look at her mother, Katara's head feels like a Blizzard, fuzzy and lost. It is not Kya's face she finds but Ursa's, Katara's face scrunches in confusion. Then Ursa's features shift. Now Kya. But the face continues to shift and change. The entire left side of her mother's face begin's to melt and char, the flesh cracks and her lips fall away.

Katara screams. She screams so hard that she screams herself awake. She's upright in bed, her eyes blurring with tears. She shakes as she tries to figure out how to breath again, her heart close to exploding.

Lu Ten bursts through the doors of her room, every lantern igniting with his entery. His eyes are wide and frantic and Katara can hear his own heartbeat over the rush in her ears.

He finds her amongst the cushions before his eyes dart over the rest of her room.

"Katara. What happened? Are you okay?" He demands, finally entering and nearing her bedside.

Katara feels pathetic when she has to fit her words out between hiccuping sobs. "I- I had a- had a really bad dream."

At that the tension in Lu Ten's shoulders ease. Katara hadn't realised the temperature of the room had gone up until his relief cools him back down.

He sits down at her side and rubs some sleep from his eyes. She also hadn't noticed his sleep clothes, fabric even silkier than her dresses. The light reflects like oil off of the deep red of his sleeve.

"It's okay little Koi, just a nightmare, you're fine." He tells her, his voice soothing and calm. "We all get them, you're okay."

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Katara is in fact not okay.

The news comes early that morning. A little rolled up scroll tied in ribbon and marked by a wax seal is delivered as they eat breakfast. The Firelord has decided the punishment for Lu Ten's derisions. He's to be shipped off to the Be Sing Se front immediately.

Azulon hopes to teach him a lesson in following order's and humility. Lu Ten is to fight amongst the enlisted.

Lu Ten's mouth pulls down as he reads this, tension drawing at the sides of his eyes. It isn't until he looks up to Katara watching him until he schools his features. He tells her that it will be fine. He is a soldier after all, this is what soldiers do.

That puts a fear in the center of Katara's belly. Lu Ten will be taken from her and she will be alone in the strangness of this enemy land. Against her better judgement she had come to care for him. Even if he is blood of a monster, he's her only friend, her only familiar face.

The letter says he's to be shipped out with his father, in a days time. Then Katara will be on her own.

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She barley gets to say goodbye to him. The man that's accompanied her these months. What few moments they do get are hurried and stiff.

Everybody wants a piece of the Prince before he departs and Katara is stuck in lesson after lesson. Meeting tutors and setting plans. The Firelord was true to his word about her Royal education, every scholar in the Empiral City want to tutor her- this exotict oddity.

They have lunch together before he leaves. Lu Ten, General Iroh, and herself. The General much less imposing sitting there in his day robes and joking with his son. Katara is disarmed by how warm the Dragon is.

The final goodbye is the only time Lu Ten slips and betray's his emotions. He hugs her, something he hadn't dared yet to do.

"I will see you again." He promises, knelt down and embracing her like family. "I wish you luck Little Koi."

Katara says nothing, she lets him hug her and fights to keep her eyes dry. To many familiar faces have dissapeared from her short life so far. And even though he promises to return, Lu Ten too is leaving her. She'll cry later, in the pile of foreign fabic she calls a bed. But for now she bows.

"Goodbye."